© 2021 EPFL - EPFL engineers have developed a neural interface that disappears harmlessly in the body after several months and allows natural tissue to grow back. What's more, it can be implanted in a patient's blood vessel rather than inside the brain, thereby avoiding the need for invasive surgery. Some implants like pacemakers can last for years, while others wear out quickly due to technical weaknesses. "New neuroprosthetic devices are thinner, more flexible and more elastic, making them better suited to the mechanical properties of brain tissue," says Diego Ghezzi, a professor at EPFL's School of Engineering and holder of the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering. "But that also makes them more fragile and less durable." Removing these implants can be difficult, or even impossible, because it generally requires invasive surgery. A biodegradable implant for longer-term applications Ghezzi and his team of engineers are developing a new generation of biodegradable implants that get around this problem. The first obstacle they faced relates to the short lifetimes of biodegradable materials, which limit how extensively they can be used.
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